April 24, 2008	Thursday	Rabi-us-Sani 17, 1429

KUALA LUMPUR, April 23 : Malaysian crude palm oil futures jumped as much as 3.5 per cent on Wednesday on expectations Argentine soy farmers will resume strike action while consumer countries start buying vegetable oils this month.

Palm oil, which competes with soyaoil for use in products like biofuels, ice-cream and shampoo, had been treading lower over the past week until the possibility of a strike boosted prices.

The benchmark July contract rose as much as 120 ringgit to 3,560 ringgit ($1,137) per ton before settling up 110 ringgit at 3,550 ringgit.

External markets such as the crude oil rally supported vegetable oil prices to some extent but it is the fear of an Argentine strike that has lifted sentiment, said Abah Ofon, a Dubai-based softs analyst with Standard Chartered Bank.

The most-active September soyaoil contract on China’s Dalian Commodity Exchange jumped 3.8 per cent.

Traders have said the Argentine strikes may force big consumers China and India to start buying Malaysian and Indonesian palm oil instead.

Exports of Malaysian palm oil products for April 1-20 fell 5.3 per cent to 782,609 tons, cargo surveyor Intertek Testing Services said on Monday, while Societe Generale de Surveillance reported an increase of 4.6 per cent to 862,636 tons.

But the decline was far less pronounced than falls of up to 41 per cent between April 1 and 10.

Eight to 10 Indian states are considering combined imports of 70,000 to 80,000 tons of edible oils per month to run various food schemes for the poor, a government source said on Wednesday.

Malaysia’s April palm oil output is likely to rise 5 per cent from last month on the back of widespread rains and a recovery in production after a slowdown last year, a leading industry analyst said on Wednesday.

In Malaysia’s physical market, crude palm oil for April shipment in the southern region was quoted at 3,520/3,530 ringgit a ton. Trades were done at 3,520 ringgit.—Reuters